Friday, January 12, 2018

How much are you willing to pay for Jesus?

So a painting that apparently sold for $125 sixty years ago has now fetched $450,312,500 thus making it the highest priced painting ever sold at auction! Maybe I should note that it was painted by Leonardo DiVinci. And maybe it would be good to note that he did not paint very many works, perhaps 16 all told. And maybe it should be noted that it had been painted over at some point or another. And maybe it should be noted that it was widely assumed the work was lost, although other copies of it did survive.

Leonardo painted a picture of Jesus for the King of France between 1506 and 1513 and this is it. So what makes it so valuable. The subject or the guy with the brushes in his hand? Ahhhhh, now there is a sermon. Of course we will probably not know who paid the fortune for it or whether they wrote out a check or put it on their debit card or maybe put it on a credit card for the free airline miles. You have to wonder?!

The point is this. How much are you willing to pay for Jesus? And here it gets really interesting. You cannot afford Him. I already knew I could not afford the painting but the real thing is even more past my financial reach. And yet what we cannot afford, He willingly gives. He gives Himself into our flesh in the incarnation. Though He is the Lawgiver, He puts Himself under the Law for us. He walks among us suffering the same frustrations, trials, temptations, and troubles of this mortal life (yet without sin). He takes upon His flesh all the pain of our suffering and all the weight of our sins and in a final breath dies our death that we might be forgiven and free. He rises on the third day to give to us His own life that we might dwell with Him and wear the likeness of His own glorious flesh forevermore. This He gives to us freely, without cost to us for all the cost He has already borne.

Wow. We are the kind of people who think an old canvas that somebody had already painted over, of a Mona Lisa looking Jesus, by a famous painter with a limited body of work, is worth the kind of money only a few billionaires and governments can muster. And there is Jesus in our midst offering His priceless voice to us in His Word, His water to wash the dirt off the inside as well as the outside of our sin stained lives, His body and blood no one can afford to be eaten and drunk in His holy Supper, and His hope to swell our hearts when death threatens to steal it all away. Wow, indeed!

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The Window

This is the Means of Grace Window that is above the altar of Grace Lutheran Church where I serve. It reminds us of the keys (confession and absolution), the wheat(the bread which is the Body of Christ), the cup (which is His Blood), the Word (Scripture), and the Pastoral Office (the red stole). In this one wonderful window we see the treasures of the Church in the Word and Sacraments and I love that it is available for all to see. I realize that this image has been stolen all over the internet but it is a real window, a copyrighted image, belonging to Grace Lutheran Church, Clarksville, Tennessee, which has kindly allowed my use of it...

About Me

I have been a Lutheran Pastor for more than 37 years, serving in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, and the Pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Clarksville, TN, in my 25th year here. I have a lot of thoughts (obviously not all of equal weight or importance) and this place is where you meet some of those meandering thoughts from this pastoral mind.

Why begin a blog?

I spend a few minutes a few times a week checking out several different blogs. Some are on-line forums and others are the musings of friends, who, like me, are Lutheran Pastors. Since so many spend so much time in front of their computer, I am sharing a few thoughts in this medium. So join the conversation and see what pops up.